The author of A Most Wanted Man pays tribute to the late actor, who stars in
an upcoming film adaptation

Spy thriller novelist John Le Carré has written a tribute to deceased actor Philip Seymour Hoffman for the New York Times. The article arrives in the run-up to the cinematic release of A Most Wanted Man, based on Le Carré’s novel and starring Hoffman in the lead role, in the US.

In the piece, he declares Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance as Truman Capote “the best single performance I’d seen on screen”, and states the actor as his personal choice to play George Smiley, the central character in many of his novels including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, should he ever be portrayed by an American.

“But I did tell him that he was the only American actor I knew who could play my character George Smiley, a role first graced by [Alec] Guinness in the BBC “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” and more recently by Gary Oldman in the big-screen adaptation — but then, as a loyal Brit, I was claiming Gary Oldman for our own.”

Hoffman stars in the film, directed by Anton Corbijn (Control), alongside Willem Dafoe, Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright. He passed away in February this year at the age of 46, in an accident caused by acute mixed drug intoxication. Le Carré writes of Hoffman having "an intelligence that came at you like a pair of headlights and enveloped you from the moment he grabbed your hand".

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He also jokes that Hoffman "wasn’t much of a lover on screen, but mercifully, we didn’t have to bother about that in our movie". When talks of a potential bedroom scene for A Most Wanted Man emerged, Le Carré claims that "both partners ran a mile".

Le Carré also saw that Hoffman was troubled: “Philip was burning himself out before your eyes. Nobody could live at his pace and stay the course, and in bursts of startling intimacy he needed you to know it... Whenever he left the room, you were afraid you'd seen the last of him.”

He praises Hoffman’s performance in the film, the actor's last major screen role: “He did a mouth thing, a kind of pout. He seemed to kiss his lines rather than speak them.”